I Can't Free You
by RippedIntoPieces
Summary: A hybrid takes Max from the Flock, slowly drawn to his charms, Max has to decide who to choose: her old family or her new one. Finally updated. Rated T
1. Chapter 1

Prologue:

The arched form of a young adolescent was hidden, out of sight, in one of the many trees that surrounded the clearing. From this level he had a clear view of all the Flock as they sat round the fire, roasting whatever they could find in the flames. The boy almost grinned when he thought of what his plan would do to them, in less than a few hours he would have his prize and they would be left clueless. Clutching the branch next to him, he threw himself into the air and spread his wings wide; he blew a kiss back to where his love was waiting and muttered

"Don't worry my sweet; I'll be back before dawn."

Tonight, Maximum Ride would be his.

He could hardly wait.


	2. Chapter 2

You know even though we were mutant freaks, still on the run from psychos who wanted us dead, I still felt pretty normal; sitting in front of our campfire shoving whatever I could find on a stick to eat. It had only been a few days since our most recent escape from Itex and already they seemed to have forgotten all about us. Which was good for me; I mean not that I don't enjoy it but constantly fighting for my life isn't exactly a fun hobby. Looking over at the others I could see Fang was tenser than usual; he was sitting straight-backed against a tree, looking frustrated as he typed frantically on our awesome lap-top. I stood up and walked towards him, sitting down loudly next to him, he glanced at me briefly and then turned back to the lap-top, swearing quietly under his breath he switched it off and turned to face me,

"So, Fang, why are you swearing at our laptop? Is it messing up again?"

He sighed and shook his head then opened the laptop up and showed me the e-mail screen of the laptop, there was a message at the top for his latest entry. Reading it quickly my eyes widened and I gave Fang a confused look. He shrugged and closed his lap-top again and stood up brushing pine needles off his jeans,

"I had another message before we split up that was just like this one, I couldn't trace it but I know one thing for certain, it turned out to be right. If this is the same thing then whoever sent it is giving us a warning; the last message warned us about Angel and even though that was an act they knew what was happening. Max, they won't just forget us; they didn't before and they won't now; we've got to get out of here hopefully before they Flyboys find us."

I stared blankly at Fang first, that was a longer speech than the one about finding a permanent home. Man, soon he would be like a male Nudge; after a few seconds I nodded at Fang and we walked back to the others. They were all lying in the light of the fire; yawning and rubbing their eyes, even Fang seemed to be suffering from fatigue. We all tapped fists and the others crashed in the nearby trees, Fang sloped off to lean against a large pine tree so I could barely see him under the shadow of the branches. I sat facing the fire again and tried to work out why someone was sending us warnings against Itex. The message had said this:

**We're still after you. **

It wasn't until I smelt the oh-so-familiar sickly-sweet smell of chloroform that I realised how right that message was.


	3. Chapter 3

Fang was keeping a closer eye on Max tonight; just in case the sick freaks from the School decided to show up again. He hoped it would take them a while to catch up; at least then he would have some time with Max that wasn't in a PetSmart dog crate. He stayed hidden under the pine tree just so he could see Max; without her realising he was watching her. He couldn't help letting his mind wander to how beautiful she looked; even when she was dead-tired and covered in mud. He'd been in love with her since he had been 8 yet she didn't even seem to realise; he guessed he'd hidden it well enough. Eventually he focused back on Max and realised her eyelids were starting to droop; standing up he shook himself out and began to walk over to her. As he began to approach her he could faintly smell something sweet and almost immediately he was overwhelmed by an immense feeling of tiredness.

"Max? You okay, do you want me to ta…" He stopped in the middle of his sentence as he felt a hard blow in between his shoulder blades, his breath came out in a great whoosh and he turned to face his attacker. It was a boy about Fang's age; standing in a fight stance, holding a bottle of what was probably chloroform. Fang instantly placed the boys face to his memory before the boy squirted a large amount of the liquid in Fang's face; Fang fell to the ground with a thud and closed his eyes. But before he saw the boy pick Max up and carry her into the branches.


	4. Chapter 4

**NB: If you recognize it I don't own it so**

The boy smiled as he saw Fang collapse on the ground, his face covered in the knock-out drug he had made. Max was hanging limply in his arms, he'd injected her with a stronger drug just so she wouldn't wake up till morning and he could get her back to the apartment. Jumping up he started to pump his wings back and forth, making a steady ascent into the cool night sky; he was only slightly upset that Max wasn't able to enjoy the sight with him.

"Guys, I think he's waking up, maybe you should get some water or something."

Fang heard a voice somewhere near his head, groaning he sat up and tried to remember what had happened the night before.

"Fang are you ok? You've been out for around 4 hours; we found you collapsed in the middle of the camp. And then we tried to wake you up but you didn't even move and then we got really panicked because we thought you might have injured yourself again and then-" Iggy put his hand over Nudge's mouth. She was speaking at an incredibly fast speed; even for her and Fang was having trouble keeping up. Then he remembered

"Max…where is she?" He asked with his eyes still closed

"That's just it, um Fang she's gone." Iggy knelt down to Fang's level, "What happened last night?"

"Max was on first watch and I was about to swap when…god what the hell happened next?" His mind was pulling a complete blank, and then the boy's face came to mind

"There was a boy…around our age; he sprayed me with something, like a drug and I saw him grab Max."

"Crap. Do you think he was an Eraser?" Iggy asked

"No. More like another bird kid."

The rest of the Flock's eyes opened their eyes as wide as they could.

"T-There are more kids like us?" The Gasman spluttered, his innocent looking face suddenly contorted in confusion

"Yeah…remember those kids in the Institute; a few of them had wings just like us. I just think they were considered failures; maybe they were weaker than us or something. Maybe he was one of them, but why would he want Max?" Nudge eventually tailed off and the others were faced with her question.

"We have to find her. I don't even know what he wants with Max or why he took her."

The others nodded and jumped into the air, flying into the horizon.

Max was sleeping soundly on the bed; her normally worried face was completely devoid of emotion and she looked almost peaceful. He'd never seen her remotely like that; at the School she'd always been uptight, always watchful only ever relaxing when the white-coats passed her cage. Those had been dark years, and now four years later she was back with him again and they couldn't take her away from him. The boy began to shake. They couldn't take him back there, he was stronger. He would fight them and then it would be just him and Max. Together at last. This time she wouldn't resist him.


	5. Chapter 5

A fresh wave of pain and nausea passed over me as soon as I opened my eyes, I groaned quietly trying to adjust to the bright l

A fresh wave of pain and nausea passed over me as soon as I opened my eyes, I groaned quietly trying to adjust to the bright light filling my retinas. Shock passed over me in waves, where the hell was I? I appeared to be in a brightly lit room, just big enough for me to walk around; no windows and a metal door at the end of the room. I gasped when I looked at the far wall, it was completely covered in pictures, of me. Photographs of me talking to the Flock, fighting, kissing Fang even. I gulped nervously, who the hell had brought me here? I suddenly noticed the boy sitting in the corner of the room. He was tall and wiry; I could see it in the sinewy appearance of his arms, his head was lolling against his chest, bright red hair covering his face, his chest was moving in a slow repeated motion.. He appeared to be asleep; which I took as a good reason to leave…wherever I was.

Standing up slowly I shook out my wings and walked confidently towards the door, oddly enough, it opened easily, I glanced back at the boy, he sat completely still, breathing slowly. This was far too straightforward; I mean there has to be a trap somewhere. I began to walk toward the door, until I reached the other side of the doorframe. I came to an abrupt halt, my whole body froze, I couldn't move my arms or legs forward; panic flooded my mind, the double h-e sticks is going on? I jumped as an arm wrapped itself around my waist, I guessed it was the boys, obviously he hadn't been sleeping. The boy's soft, velvety voice filled my ears,

"Now, now Max, did you really think I'd just let you walk away. I've waited so long to talk to you, we've got a lot to catch up on."

"Who the hell are you?" I whispered through clenched teeth.

"Oh, don't you remember me Maxy? I thought we were friends." A venomous tone had filled his voice. My blood turned to ice in my veins; I recognized the voice in a second.

Although I doubt its normal to be hearing a dead persons voice.

_Fang's POV_

None of us had slept since yesterday, after spending the whole day searching for Max, we'd ended up with no leads whatsoever. Whoever had taken her was long gone. We'd searched all through the forest, for tire tracks, even broken branches. Yet all we'd found was the container the chloroform had been in. I asked Nudge to check it with her power,

"Hey Nudge," She looked up from her unusual silent stance, "Can you check this for me, there might be something useful in it. Something that could lead us to Max." I threw her the container; she caught it, closing her eyes as she concentrated on the remaining emotions, and instantly grimaced.

"What can you feel?" I asked quietly, watching her expression.

"Pain, resentment, whoever has Max was clearly feeling upset about something. And he feels forgotten, left behind. Lonely. He wants something from Max." Her eyes snapped open as she dropped the container.

"Anything else?"

"Nothing that makes sense, a lot of things he was feeling or thinking are muddled up, I can't understand any of it." She shook her head in frustration. "So much for a lead." She muttered furiously.

I sighed, musing whilst I wandered off without the Flock for a while, aimlessly stepping through the trees. The image of the boy stuck in my mind, he seemed familiar and I had no idea how or why. Something about his face, his eyes; it wouldn't erase itself from my memory; of all my childhood memories, flashes of people, places, destruction, pain, loneliness; flickered through my brain, nothing reminded me of the boy. I faintly remembered one who was like us, part raven, a kind of shape-shifter; he called himself the deceiver, able to change his appearance. He died when Max and I were 6, I remember watching the whitecoats drag him away, his scream echoing in my ears… the image clicked.

Pitch.


End file.
